A Homeschooling Journey

The Beauty of Play
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Homeschoolers from all walks of life, finding out how they came to homeschool, how they choose curricula, what styles of homeschooling work for their family, and how they navigate life.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Meet Tanya

    Dr. Tanya Faisal is a doctor-lawyer turned homeschooling mom of 3 delicious hooligans, ages 16, 13, and 11. She shares her homeschooling journey at Project Happy Home on YouTube and Instagram (projecthappyhome), where you can find videos about secular homeschooling, ADHD & 2e parenting, and an essentialist approach to all things midlife. You can also find her sharing bookish and planner geek content on Tiktok @feralbluestockingreads. After a decade of homeschooling, she is about to return to the classroom as a 7th grade science teacher this coming school year. Show Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:40 Meet Tanya 03:33 NC Requirements & Standardized Testing 05:17 How Tanya Found Homeschooling 08:42 ADHD & Learning Your Child 12:11 Reassessment & Self-Care 19:24 Tanya's Career Path 20:58 Trying Public School 26:20 Advice for New Homeschoolers 32:54 Labels, Mindset & Flexibility 46:38 Curriculum Choices 52:32 Avoiding Curriculum Overwhelm 01:06:52 Biggest Challenges 01:09:38 Schooling Multiple Children 01:12:02 Biggest Surprises About Homeschooling 01:15:37 Connect with Tanya Read Alouds Read Aloud books are essentially what the name implies. They are books that are read aloud together as a family where you are listening and discussing the books together. Audio books count! We often listened to audio books together. Any book can be used as a Read Aloud. I like to read aloud books that are slightly greater than my child's reading ability (I use lexile scores for this,) to continue to enhance vocabulary. You can find some of our favorite Read Aloud's below. Reverse Planning Reverse planning is when the learning activities of the day are written at the end of the day in the planner labeled for that day. It is a great way to see how much learning is actually happening in your day to day. It is also a good practice if you are feeling frustrated that your daily planning is not happening, so you can get a realistic idea of the amount of learning actually taking place. Tanya has a great YouTube video on reverse planning below. Unschooling Unschooling is a bit of a misnomer. It is not, as its name implies, not doing any school. Instead it is following your child's interest in facilitating their education. Many families will strew different items and resources, observe their children, and have discussions with their children to find their children's interest, and then further their studies by helping them find more resources for learning. Strewing is when resources or 'invitations for play' such as logic puzzles, toys, games, or potential activities are left in prominent areas of the house where a homeschool child might frequent to allow them to engage with the material or not. Unschooling can look very different such as internships with community members, building or creating on their own or can look very typical such as using a textbook to learn about an interest that a child has. The defining factor in the unschooing philosophy is a child's autonomy in a child-led educational journey. The parent does a lot of work finding resources, providing opportunities, and facilitating activities to support that journey. Scheduling Types Block Schedule Block scheduling is where a particular subject is the main focus of study for several weeks before moving onto a new subject. Waldorf and Unit Studies are pedagogies that use block scheduling. Waldorf Schools Rotation of Blocks for K-8th from Jamie York from The Art of Homeschooling Loop Schedule A loop schedule is when different subjects of similar time requirements are placed in a list as opposed to assigned to a day. Each day, the next thing on the list is done. This allows each subject to be done with the given weight it is assigned in the loop scheduling. For instance, if you want both history and science done about 2 to 3 times a week and they take roughly the same amount of time, you can place them on a loop schedule, doing history one day, and science the next, regardless of what day it is. This ensures that both are being done, particularly if there is a day of the week that you are more likely to miss school than another. There are a couple of important aspects of doing a loop schedule to consider. One is that amount of time that subject usually takes. We spend roughly the same amount of time on history, science, and language arts, so those could be in the same rotation. Artist study for us was only five minutes, so it was not a good fit for this rotation, because it did not take nearly the same amount of time. Another loop of similar time frames could be created with art study such as form drawing, recitation, or copy work. The second aspect of loop scheduling is the desired amount of time. If you wanted to do language arts more frequently than history or science, you might place language arts in the rotation two or three times such as science language arts history language arts Transcript Della (00:01) Tanya, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Tanya @projecthappyhome (00:04) Hi, how are you? I'm so happy to be here. Della (00:08) I have been starting the podcast with guests saying where they are from and the homeschooling requirements for that area. Can you do that for us? Tanya @projecthappyhome (00:16) Mm-hmm. Yeah, so we're in North Carolina and the requirements are really easy here. There's basically just a requirement for the instructor to have a high school diploma equivalent. You submit that, the ages of your kids, and you're pretty much registered. You also have to submit proof of immunization unless you have a medical or religious exemption, very similar to public school here. And you need to have proof on hand for yourself in case of review of a standardized exam every year. And you have a choice of options. Like what standardized exam you take is really up to you, but you should keep it for at least one year in case someone calls you up. But I've never heard of that personally. Della (00:56) What standardized testing did you choose? Tanya @projecthappyhome (01:00) We use the CAT. We get it through academic excellence because it's easy and not the test, but the whole process is easy. Like academic excellence makes it seamless. It's an inexpensive exam. The kids take it at home, particularly with my eldest who had ADHD. I appreciated that they had the untimed option also available. that's what we've done every year. I like having the standard measure honestly of what it is. We realized nobody can spell for a couple of years in a row. Della (01:24) Spelling's not my greatest strength either. I don't I don't judge anyone for their lack of spelling ability. We did get a curricula for that Tanya @projecthappyhome (01:28) Yeah. Yes, we did too. I I thought it wasn't as bad as it was. So sometimes standardized testing can really come in there and show you things that you had not seen. Because my kids know how to spell going forward, like to spell a word correctly, but to recognize misspellings was not their strength. Della (01:49) did you find yourself homeschooling? What did that path look like for you? Tanya @projecthappyhome (01:53) So we had not planned to homeschool at all. It was not on our radar at all. When my eldest was in kindergarten, I was not particularly pleased with how they were treating him. He had started to exhibit a lot of signs that would be similar to ADHD behaviors. It didn't help that he was a very early reader, so he knew how to read pretty fluently when he was four. not through any effort of my own. He was just one of those kids. He just understood how to read. it made kindergarten very difficult for him because he was very cheerful, very social, loved talking all the time, did not want to do listing alphabet words around the room. At that point, he could read chapter books. I think, felt like he was in like a daycare and other kids were just having instruction, but he was there for a good time. The accommodations they would have made for him were isolating in my mind, that he would have to sit by himself, that he would have less of a requirement to do the work to completion. I thought, okay, let me take this kid out for a year, teach him how to sit on the line, teach him how school behaviors should work. And quickly in the beginning of first grade when we started homeschooling, I realized this kid was not going to sit on the line. The line was not the problem. There was no real problem. He really enjoyed moving. He really enjoyed talking. He really enjoyed sharing his ideas. He was such a social kid that I was less concerned about missing the daily interaction with other little kids his age. Like he talked to everybody we encountered everywhere all the time. I was still working part time at that point and I had my other two kids who were three and one. it became a lot of work. We moved before he went into second grade into the middle of nowhere and the girls were still in a little Montessori preschool, but I felt really stretched thin at that point. I was working part-time, but also homeschooling. And by the time they all came home from half-day preschool, I was never sleeping anymore. I was doing my work at night. It was a whole mess of work. then I decided, you know what? Let's just homeschool all these kids. We're out in the boonies. We don't really have better options. Let me make a choice and move forward in that direction. And that's what I did. I started sharing about homeschooling very early. because I was so grateful to the people who did share YouTube and social media that I thought, let me at least share about what we're doing, what we're using, like people's flip throughs, people's honest appraisals, especially social media back then, before it was all pretty flat lays and things. was really a lot of people saying this worked an

    1h 17m
  2. Meet Jasmine

    Jun 8

    Meet Jasmine

    Jasmine is a mom of four, homeschooling/ afterschooling her children in Southeast Asia. Shifting her priorities to a more traditional homeschool, Jasmine’s approach is both intentional and thoughtful as she transitions her older two kids from middle to highschool. She has been homeschooling for seven years, originally in Pennsylvania, before her family of six moved to Southeast Asia. Her two youngest attend the local school where the are immersed in a bilingual program of traditional Chinese and English. She is still responsible for teaching her younger children ELA. Her family continues to adjust to their new lives,  taking it one day at a time. Show Chapters 00:00 Opening Highlights 01:36 Meet Jazz 03:12 Pennsylvania's Homeschool Requirements 08:13 How the Pandemic Led to Homeschooling 14:26 Raising a Gifted Child 21:42 The Decision to Move to Taiwan 24:34 Downsizing a Life Into Suitcases 27:27 Adjusting to Life in Taiwan 33:39 Homeschooling in a New Country 38:18 The Case for Traditional Homeschooling 38:53 Beauty of Play Membership 44:13 Teaching an Inclusive History 51:29 Arts, Music & Bringing Yourself to Homeschool 53:01 No Requirements: Homeschooling as a Foreigner 58:23 Homeschooling Teenagers 01:02:12 Creativity, Rest & Following Teen Interests 01:06:46 The Greatest Challenge: Time 01:14:50 What Surprised Me Most 01:16:32 Closing Jack and Link Core Knowledge History and Geography Science Language Arts Mathematics Ida B Wells Tennessee State Museum Women's History. org PBS Masterpiece Transcript Della (01:20) This week we're meeting Jazz. Jasmine is a mom of four, homeschooling and afterschooling her children in Southeast Asia. Shifting her priorities to a more traditional homeschool, Jasmine's approach is both intentional and thoughtful as she transitions her older two kids from middle school to high school. She has been homeschooling for seven years, originally in Pennsylvania before her family of six moved to Southeast Asia. Her two youngest attend the local school where they are immersed in a bilingual program of traditional Chinese and English. She is still responsible for teaching her younger children ELA. Her family continues to adjust to their new lives, taking it one day at a time. Della (02:11) This is a homeschool journey. Della (03:12) hello, Jazz, welcome. Jazz (03:15) Hello? Della (03:15) I'm so glad that you're here with me. Jazz (03:18) I'm so glad to be here. Della (03:19) I have started the previous podcast by talking about where people are and their requirements, but you were a little different because you moved your family from the United States to Taiwan. So I want start where you started homeschooling and then move to where you are now and the differences between that. So can you tell me what the requirements in Pennsylvania? were for you to homeschool. Jazz (03:48) Okay, so Pennsylvania was probably one of the more stricter states, just as far as what was required. Before you can homeschool, you have to have an affidavit that you give to the school district. And I would have to get that notarized every single year. I would do it online. then you have to submit your learning objectives. And then you're able to homeschool after that. at the end of the homeschool year, you have to meet with an evaluator and they basically go through your portfolio and depending on the evaluator, depends on what you need to include in your portfolio. I had one who was kind of in the middle. So she required three samples of each subject just to see progression. And then she would interview the kids just to ask them how they enjoyed homeschool, what was their favorite thing about homeschool. If they had any adventures they went on. She was very nice. And she told me I always submitted too much stuff. but I felt really good about it because I was really proud of our homeschool and all the things that we were able to accomplish. we do a lot of creative projects, which the public world doesn't see. So being able to show those creative personal projects really meant something to me. I think she saw the pride in that because she would always comment like, these art projects are so good. I'm like, thank you, thank you so much. But that was as strict as it got. We didn't have anyone contact us or check in for the year. The school district is allowed to do that. they are allowed to ask that you submit work within 30 days, but our district didn't. I didn't expect them to do anything like that. Submitting paperwork and at the beginning of the year and then submitting the paperwork after we had our evaluation, for the most part was smooth. I think the district. didn't really understand like, would you want to stay in homeschool? You know, why not send your kids to school? But I also had a child who was gifted. And so I think it was more of a, this will help our scores rather than, you know, your child would love to be here type of situation. The kids did, my two older kids, Della (05:59) Yeah. Jazz (06:06) did wind up going to school before we left for Taiwan the year previous. They did wind up going to school part time. My gifted child, she went for her gifted and talented classes and then they both went for band. They didn't really like it. I think the environment was just too chaotic for them. So they wind up leaving that portion. my daughter still went to her gifted and talented classes and that was like the best. The teacher was amazing. It was amazing to hear how she took skills from home school and used them in that class. before we moved to Taiwan, we had planned to do it all over again. The kids were going to go to school part-time for certain subjects. We were going to try it because they requested. And my daughter was going to do her gifted and talented class. And then over the summer, My husband was hired for an art teacher position in Taiwan and everything happened very quickly as you know. And then we moved here and it's been very different. Della (07:09) Yeah, so when you were in Pennsylvania, how many children were you homeschooling? Jazz (07:16) I have four children and I was homeschooling three. my middle child, my second daughter, she was going to nursery school, so she would go to nursery school for a couple hours each day and she would come home and then we would do just a few lessons, mostly art projects, reading, walking around, going to the community garden. going to our local library. then older two was a bit more formal. Della (07:48) had a baby during this time, older now, but you also had a newborn in the mix of all this and eventually a toddler in the mix of all this. Jazz (07:52) Yes. Yes. Yes, I had my fourth child. she was a new, fresh toddler. And I remember the trip here thinking I never want to do this again. Della (08:13) I can imagine. Jazz (08:15) Ha Della (08:16) So how did you find yourself homeschooling? What was that path for you in Pennsylvania? Jazz (08:23) I I originally thought about homeschooling for my oldest and he's the only boy. So I was noticing that he just needed a little bit of extra time when it came to homework, when it came to practicing reading. I felt like the one-on-one environment might suit him. So we started the research. But then, you know, as it goes, you start talking to people about it and then people kind of, because everyone, society tends to have negative ideas about homeschooling because they don't really know about homeschooling, just stuff based off of hearsay. And so we just kind of hung up the idea of homeschooling. It was just kind of like, okay, well, maybe we don't do this and we just try for the extra homework help and. We'll just do our best with when he comes home. And then the pandemic happened we were one of the states that went on lockdown and everything happened so fast. I think this was everyone because no one knew what was going on. The information would change every single day. And we knew that there was a chance we would go on lockdown. but there was no real plan in place. It was just kind of like, you'll go on lockdown and things will just close. And that's pretty much what happened. There was word out that we had some cases and there might be a potential lockdown. And then all of a sudden, the day before, they had told the kids, you know, make sure you bring your books bags, it was like, okay. Kids brought their book bags. And then we got alerts on our phone saying you need to pick your kids up midday. And it was just like, okay. So it was. Della (10:04) Wow. Jazz (10:07) panic mode set in, it was very chaotic. Thankfully, we lived right down the street from the school. it was a three to five minute walk. I remember grabbing, the two young ones, running over to the school, grabbing the kids and their book bags being heavy. my daughter, she was doing a hybrid program. she was doing a school online. then she would go to school for her specials. she was actually at school for her special. she came, we already had the laptop because she was doing online school. They came home and it was just like, now what? And my daughter, continued her online school. My son went. we went to go pick up his Chromebook. And I was just in a shock in a daze because everything happened so fast. then I saw the work that they assigned my son and it was awful. It was online. It was, there was so much reading comprehension. Remind you, he's in second grade. So it was just paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs of information. And then at the end, there's some multiple choice. Then there's this writing component. it was very different from what his school day looked like. His teacher who was phenomenal and I loved working with her was even like, this is, I don't know what th

    1h 18m

  3. Jun 1

    Meet Hana

    Hana is deeply passionate about homeschooling and has been cultivating a rich, nurturing learning environment for her children since 2003. Drawing from her own strengths and creativity, she’s built a sustainable and inspiring homeschool journey rooted in a Waldorf-inspired, Islamic approach. Her work emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning—for both parent and child—and she encourages other homeschoolers to rediscover their own passions as a foundation for confident, joyful education. With three grown sons and a 14-year-old daughter still learning at home, Hana brings years of experience and insight to her teaching. She is currently a teacher-in-training at the Waldorf School of Orange County and a skilled artist, knitter, and maker, sharing her talents to inspire and uplift fellow homeschooling families. Based in California, Hana documents her homeschooling journey through her website https://pepperandpine.com and across social media platforms, where you can find her under @pepperandpine on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and TikTok. Show Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:10 Meet Hana 04:49 Homeschooling in California: Know Your Options 08:09 Their Path Through the System 16:25 High School Planning & Early Graduation 21:00 Why We Started Homeschooling 24:05 Life Before Homeschooling 27:44 Teaching Through Your Temperament 34:40 Teaching Multiple Ages in Waldorf 46:06 Building a Waldorf Block 58:45 Teaching the Whole Child 01:03:45 History & the Age of Exploration 01:10:53 Greatest Challenge in Homeschooling 01:12:37 Biggest Surprise: Less Is More 01:17:52 Closing Waldorf Schools Rotation of Blocks for K-8th from Jamie York from The Art of Homeschooling Waldorf Teacher Training The Beauty of Play's Botany Guide Handwork from Hana https://pepperandpine.com/handwork Waldorfish Art Program https://waldorfish.com Charlotte Mason Narration Drawing and Painting in Waldorf Schools Transcript Hana (00:00) But let me tell you, when it was right for them to be on their own, my heart was so at ease. I just felt like it was right. I didn't have to go through that stress and my child didn't have to go through that stress and they do get over it and we do get over it. I just wasn't prepared for I think my greatest, this is like really kind of silly, but I think my greatest challenge in homeschooling is me. I am the greatest challenge. We almost do botany every year, even though it's only called for once. it's in fifth grade curriculum, but we are either in the garden or we're planting something or we're cooking. That's, part of botany in some way. Della (00:27) Yeah. Hana (00:41) Or you have an older student who's in high school and botany is entirely different because it's more like biology at that point potentially. I feel like that's something that very easily could appeal to so many different ages. it's that adolescent years that I'm like, wow, there is… as much going on in those years and as much care in the curriculum for those students as there has been in the previous seven years. Della (01:10) This week we're meeting Hana. Many of you probably already know Hana from her YouTube channel and her website, Pepper and Pine. Hana is deeply passionate about homeschooling and has been cultivating a rich, nurturing learning environment for her children since 2003. Drawing from her own strength and creativity, she's built a sustainable and inspiring homeschool journey rooted in Waldorf-inspired Islamic approach. Her work emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning for both parent and child, and she encourages other homeschoolers to rediscover their own passions as a foundation for confident, joyful education. With three grown sons and a 14-year-old daughter still learning at home, Hana brings years of experience and insight to her teaching. She is currently in a teacher training program at the Waldorf School of Orange County and a skilled artist, knitter, and maker sharing her talents to inspire and uplift her fellow homeschool families. Based in California, Henna documents her homeschooling journey through her website, Pepper and Pine, and across social media platforms where you can find her under Pepper and Pine on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and TikTok. Della (02:40) This is a homeschool journey. Della (03:42) Hi Hana welcome. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hana (03:47) Hi Della, thank you for having me. I'm very excited about this. Della (03:50) I am too. I realize we've talked about a lot of different things over the years, but I don't know any of the answers to the questions that I'm asking you today. Hana (04:02) Very exciting. And yes, we have talked so much over the years. what's really fabulous about that is that having this opportunity to connect with you and other like-minded individuals is such a gift now that I know I didn't have when I first started out. So I'm especially loving this. And I really, it's close to my heart to do this and give back to others. Della (04:26) I agree. I think each person experience and differences really provides a wealth of information to other people. Well, let's start out with what state you're in and the requirements for homeschooling in your state. Hana (04:45) Yeah, it's a good question. And it's quite varied state to state. I'm in California, and I've only homeschooled in California. we have two types of schooling available, and that is the public school route or the private school route. within the public school and the private school route, there are on-site and off-site choices. you have offsite options. an offsite option for a private school might be say, a private tutor, like maybe you are a professional athlete or an actor or a musician, then you might choose that option if you're still in school and you need to. complete your courses, then you might have a tutor or some kind of private school that offers off-site instruction. And then within that off-site instruction, you might find schools that say, hey, listen, we know that you want to do your own thing, so we will file the paperwork for you. Just give us a small fee, maybe $1 to $300 a year, and we'll file all the paperwork for you. And then you can just kind of go do your own thing. And then even within that, you might find schools that are specifically catering to the homeschool family. And they might say, well, listen, give us a few hundred dollars and you can have access to like, say, our library or we'll organize field trips. And so that's another option within the private school option. You're still paying for this. But you can also say, you know what, I don't really need those kinds of services and I feel pretty confident in finding my own paperwork. So you can just go directly to the website And then you can file your own paperwork and you can become a school of one family with. as little as one teacher and one student, or you can have more students. And now the laws are changing all the time. So you have to make sure that you check on the updated laws. But I remember a time when I learned about this, where you could have a home school with more than five students, for instance. Let's just say you have more than five children. And then those schools end up becoming part of public record. So just letting you know that you might get a call one day for someone saying, hey, can I join your school? And it's really just a home school. So that's all part of the private school route. What's really great about California is that you have a lot of public school option choices for homeschooling as well. So this would be the offsite choices through the public school system. And in that, you might have a charter school, you might have your county school, you might have your district school. So each of those options are going to be free. They're going to provide books and services. And in some cases, like the charter school we were a part of, they'll actually provide funding. These different institutions will offer a variety of things, but it's all free. And in some cases, you might even be provided your own materials or access to those libraries or access to field trips or access literally to funding, not cash, but funding that you can use in order to buy curriculum or attend classes. So the lot of options within California, you just have to know what's going to be best for you because each one has its benefits and its challenges. Della (08:04) which one did you choose? Hana (08:07) We chose a variety of them. We started out with, I think, our district when we first started homeschooling. I didn't know very much, and I did something similar to what my mom did. I thought I went to my district and said, we want to homeschool. they said, no problem. We were enrolled in that school. And we met with a teacher, and she gave us a big stack of books that were a lot of teacher-made. This is in kindergarten, so for my five-year-old. big stack of teacher manuals and some workbooks and we even had access to manipulatives and everything. we were required to do the work that other five year olds would be doing in our district. I realized I really wanted to do my own thing, my own Waldorf thing, and this wasn't working out and I would do. like one entire week dedicated to all of the work that they would give us. And I'd get those worksheets done and then I'd spend the other three weeks doing our Waldorf inspired work. And it was not working out because at least in kindergarten, those two methods are so different. We just were not vibing. So then the following year decided to go to the county and this was what my mom had done so that I was a little more familiar with this. So within the county, this will service all the students within that county, not

    1h 20m

  4. May 25

    Meet Tomika

    Tomika is a homeschool mom of three, currently living in Western New York. As a trained chemist, she brings her curiosity and love for science to her home education practice. In the early years, her homeschool style was Waldorf inspired, making use of art, hands on learning, and living books all while incorporating her family’s multicultural background and desire to know more about the diverse world around them. Now, in the 11th year of homeschooling, she would describe her current style as eclectic and uses various curricula, resources, and the local community to meet the educational needs of her 5th, 8th, and 11th grade children. Show Chapters 00:00 Preview 02:28 Welcome & New York Homeschool Requirements 08:36 How Tomika Found Her Way to Homeschooling 12:17 From Chemistry to Homeschooling 15:33 Adapting Waldorf for a Multicultural Family 17:42 Military Life & Global Perspective 20:37 Teaching Indigenous & World Cultures 24:16 Homeschooling Evolution: Early Years to Today 29:28 History of the Haudenosaunee 29:31 Current Schedules: High School & Middle School 35:09 Math Curricula Deep Dive 41:32 Math in the Early Years 47:36 Teaching Science: Living Books & Nature Study 57:35 Greatest Challenges & Building Confidence 01:02:09 What Surprised Them Most 01:04:56 Real-World Learning & College Prep 01:12:24 Closing The Parenting Passageway Haudenosaunee -- TheGreat Peace Jake Bowles Book about High School Living Science Books Transcript Tomika (00:00) African American folk tales, maybe Mexican mythology, also legends from Guam, And then being indigenous to someplace else, it gives me a greater appreciation for people who are indigenous from here. I really want to know how does this work? How are we learning how to read? I can't just be happy with buying, oh, everybody said to use this curriculum. just feeling , what's happening out in the world now, putting the political stuff aside, AI is coming, universities are not being funded. It's just wait, is what am I doing for homeschooling? we're gonna look at the child in front of us in the world around us and try to give the education that they need for who they are. and where they live now. There's five symbols on that wampum for the Confederacy and that's for the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Onida and Mohawk. Della (01:01) This week we're meeting Tamika. Tamika is a homeschool mom of three currently living in Western New York. As a trained chemist, she brings her curiosity and love for science to her home education practice. In the early years, her homeschooling style was Waldorf inspired, making use of art, hands-on learning, and living books, all while incorporating her family's multicultural background and desire to know more about the diverse world around them. Now, in the 11th year of homeschooling, she would describe her current style as eclectic and uses various curriculum, resources, and the local community to meet the educational needs of her fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade children. Della (02:55) Hi, Tomiko, welcome. And Tomika (02:57) Hello! Della (02:58) so you're here. So what I to start out with, because there's so much variation with the requirements are from state to state, I would for you to tell us what state you're in and requirements for that. Tomika (03:12) I am in New York State the requirements for New York State is that when your child is six, you need to let your local school district know that you're homeschooling. And so that's, send them in every single year, something that's called a letter of intent. And that's basically just saying, hi, we're going to homeschool. then after that, you need to send into your school district an individualized homeschool instruction plan. which is basically saying these are the subjects that we're doing and you can use a list of resources, some topics that you're covering, and you could say that it's subject to change. there are, it's a very small list of things that are required your homeschool time. So it's the usual, you need to have some English, language arts, math, social sciences, social studies, science, as you get through the grades library skills. But they have a list of everything that you need for your child to cover from K through 12. then every quarter, you need to send a quarterly report. to say this is what we've covered, they've had this number, hours of instruction. you could just say we've met the minimum hours of instruction. it's, you don't have to be super detailed about it. then at the end of the year, you send a final assessment. for elementary grades, it can be a written narrative. She says, look, my student's doing great. They really enjoyed this this year. They learned. whatever they learned this year, just something to say, okay, we did homeschool. It went well. And then for middle school, they need to be tested every other year using a standardized test. I think most people use the California achievement test here, where I am. And then they hit high school, they need to be tested every single year at the end of the year. you're finished with homeschooling, you've met all the requirements, you let your school district know we're done, can we get what's called a letter of equivalency? And it is up to the school district of whether or not they will give you a letter of equivalency. Della (05:13) my gosh. Are you allowed to give your student a diploma? Tomika (05:18) I mean, I guess you could give them a diploma? I don't know if… I don't know who would count it though. Della (05:24) in my experience, when you start looking at colleges, if that's where you're bound, they don't have the same assessment as far as graduation for homeschoolers that they do for public school kids that have, a diploma. New York seems to me to have Tomika (05:28) Mm-hmm. Thank you. Right. Della (05:45) the most complex. and highest accountability of education. Do you know anybody, maybe California, that has? Tomika (05:53) I feel Pennsylvania, they have to do… Don't they have to do a, really meet with somebody and portfolios? Is that a requirement? Because I feel you guys do portfolios. Della (06:02) I don't know. Well, Florida Florida does. Right. We send our letter of intent like you do. And then you have a couple different options to send in to the county to say, we've met the requirements for homeschooling each year. One of them is to keep a portfolio and have an annual evaluation. And the other is to do standardized testing and send those. Tomika (06:09) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Della (06:25) results in. then there, but there are loopholes that people use. You can also enroll in an umbrella school, which only takes attendance. And if you're enrolled in an umbrella school, you're considered enrolled in a private school and the same standards aren't, aren't upheld if you are registered with the county as a homeschooler. But we registered with the county as a homeschooler. and do an annual evaluation. And I really enjoy the annual evaluations for both my kids and myself. they, evaluators, there's such a wealth of information and I gained so much from that. And then also it gives my children the opportunity to go through their work for the year and see how much they've accomplished and share. Tomika (07:12) Great. Della (07:14) with someone else the things that they are most proud of. Tomika (07:18) Right. I know that on paper it sounds we have the most accountability. I feel it's we have the most busy work. Really, because the school district can't say that what you've done is not enough. Or if you say, we've done this number of hours and we've met what we… Della (07:26) Mm. Tomika (07:39) what we've met at least 80 % of what we wanted to do. 80 % of what of what you wanted to do could be almost nothing. Do you know what I mean? So Della (07:47) Right. Tomika (07:48) You can tell them these are all, you can write out the list of all the topics that you covered. And even if the topics that you covered are not equivalent to what be covered in a public school for instance, they really cannot come back. And as long as your test scores are looking good, they're not gonna come back and say , well, I see for algebra, you never got to, I don't know, the quadratic formula. right. But. Della (08:11) factoring quadratic formulas. Tomika (08:13) think so here you can put on probation. probation is if you're not turning in your paperwork and if when your students are testing, they're showing no improvement. or they test at below the 33rd percentile. For their grade level. Della (08:23) Mm-hmm. that's interesting. Tomika (08:32) when you're on probation, if you take the next test and they show improvement, even if it is still not amazing, , okay, well, you showed improvement. So move along. So I would say , it does look we have a lot of accountability here, definitely are ways that people get around what's required. Della (08:52) when we first talked about New York's standards versus Florida standards, I was saying how intimidating and exhausting it is to have to do quarterly reports. And you were , once you get into it, it's not that, not that hard. Tomika (09:07) Right. It's not, yeah, it's not that hard. I still don't doing them. You know, I still, I still am kind of , ugh, I have to just tell them , I'm doing it. trust me. I think most beginning homeschoolers, they want to impress the school districts. And they're , we, we've done all of these topics and we went on all these field trips and my kids were in all these extracurricular classes and then when you start looking at what older homeschoolers are putting on their quarterly reports and it's just the headings of chapters in the books, just a couple of things and it's just okay

    1h 16m

  5. May 18

    Meet Jess

    Jess is a former interior designer turned homeschool mother. For her thesis, she studied play based, inclusive learning spaces and tries to carry that knowledge forward into the homeschooling of her two daughters and her greater community. She enjoys quilting and other crafts, being in nature, all the books and embracing the whimsy of childhood. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her family. Show Chapters 00:00 Opening 03:18 Homeschool Requirements for Nevada 06:33 Path to Homeschooling 16:22 Before Children 21:59 Book Club 27:02 Curricula Choices 42:00 Greatest Challenge 46:19 Time in Homeschooling 53:00 Time Management in Homeschooling 55:21 Schedule 57:48 Time Schooling 01:00:59 Homeschool Surprises Links to Curricula Discussed Right Start Michael Clay Thompson Blossom and Root Rooted in Language Activity Cards

    1h 4m

  6. Season 1 Trailer

    A Homeschooling Journey Trailer

    Transcript Jazz (00:00) there's always hope. There is always a small moment. life is always happening somewhere and even if it's just a minute or two, you know, it's still happening. So I do try to prioritize the joy. Hana (00:15) I think my greatest, this is like really kind of silly, but I think my greatest challenge in homeschooling is me. I am the greatest challenge. Della (00:24) Hello, friend. This is Della from the Beauty of Play hosting a brand new podcast all about homeschooling. Tomika (00:33) African American folk tales, maybe Mexican mythology, also legends from Guam, then being indigenous to someplace else, it gives me a greater appreciation for people who are indigenous from here. Jess (00:50) Post-its, so many post-its, and I know that some of my friends have taken my post-it system and it has been successful for their children. visualizing a lot of things. Della (01:05) I'm interviewing people just like you, homeschoolers from all walks of life, Hana (01:12) But let me tell you, when it was right for them to be on their own, my heart was so at ease. I just felt like it was right. I didn't have to go through that stress and my child didn't have to go through that stress and they do get over it and we do get over it. I just wasn't prepared for Jazz (01:31) it's so personal to us and listening to the kids talk to other people about homeschool. And I always hear that pause because it's like, makes sense to us, but would it make sense to this Della (01:46) finding out how they came to homeschool, how they choose curricula, what styles of homeschooling work for their family. and how they navigate life. Tomika (01:55) we're gonna look at the child in front of us in the world around us and try to give the education that they need for who they are. and where they live Jess (02:07) I would say what most surprised me was… how little you are home when homeschooling. Della (02:17) Join us on May 18th for season one of A Homeschooling Journey.

    2 min

Trailer

About

Homeschoolers from all walks of life, finding out how they came to homeschool, how they choose curricula, what styles of homeschooling work for their family, and how they navigate life.

Information

  • Creator
    The Beauty of Play
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Beauty of Play
  • Show Website
    A Homeschooling Journey

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